Profit Taking May Dent Hang Seng Shares On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market on Tuesday halted the two-day losing streak in which it had slumped more than 360 points or 2.1 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 18,200-point plateau although investors may cash in on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed with little change ahead of key economic events that are likely to affect the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and flat and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

The Hang Seng finished sharply higher on Tuesday with gains across the board, especially among the financials, properties, technology stocks and oil companies.

For the day, the index skyrocketed 906.74 points or 5.24 percent to finish at the daily high of 18,204.68 after trading as low as 17,536.45.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group soared 9.07 percent, while Alibaba Health Info surged 9.71 percent, ANTA Sports rallied 8.01 percent, China Life Insurance spiked 8.18 percent, China Mengniu Dairy strengthened 6.10 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) increased 2.29 percent, China Resources Land jumped 7.68 percent, CITIC gathered 1.96 percent, CNOOC rose 1.19 percent, Country Garden skyrocketed 13.66 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical was up 1.45 percent, Galaxy Entertainment rallied 6.04 percent, Hang Lung Properties climbed 4.02 percent, Henderson Land improved 3.40 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas gained 2.33 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 2.65 percent, JD.com soared 10.89 percent, Lenovo advanced 3.87 percent, Li Ning jumped 5.85 percent, Longfor surged 11.33 percent, Meituan skyrocketed 11.48 percent, New World Development strengthened 4.16 percent, Techtronic Industries perked 0.91 percent, Xiaomi Corporation spiked 6.75 percent and WuXi Biologics advanced 3.38 percent.

The lead from Wall Street suggests a mild negative bias as the major averages opened higher, tumbled mid-session but then bounced back to finish mixed and little changed.

The Dow added 3.07 points or 0.01 percent to finish at 33,852.53, while the NASDAQ lost 65.72 points or 0.59 percent to end at 10,983.78 and the S&P 500 dipped 6.31 points or 0.16 percent to close at 3,957.63.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came amid lingering uncertainty about the situation in China following widespread protests over the country's Covid restrictions.

Traders may also have been reluctant to make significant moves ahead of remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell later today, which may offer additional clues about the outlook for interest rates. Jobless data follows on Friday.

In economic news, the Conference Board released a report showing a modest decrease in U.S. consumer confidence in November.

Crude oil futures settled higher Tuesday, extending gains from the previous session on hopes that OPEC may trim production to support prices later this week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended higher by $$0.96 or 1.2 percent at $78.20 a barrel.